[3] Behold the inheritance of the Lord are children: the reward, the fruit of the womb. [4] As arrows in the hand of the mighty, so the children of them that have been shaken. [5] Blessed is the man that hath filled the desire with them; he shall not be confounded when he shall speak to his enemies in the gate.
Psalm 126: 3-5
News that I missed, courtesy of The Babylon Bee:
U.S.—A new study has found the majority of people who judge parents whose kids are misbehaving in public have never been parents themselves.
The study confirmed that nearly 100% of those who glare at parents with kids misbehaving in public, silently judging them and assuming they are terrible people, have never encountered a 3-year-old before in their lives. They certainly haven’t been parents themselves, and most don’t even have little nieces or nephews whose terrible behavior would otherwise have caused them to sympathize with parents of unruly kids.
“It seems that the more kids you have, the less likely you are to assume someone is a terrible parent just because a kid is having a tantrum,” the researchers wrote in their paper. “When you have a toddler, you suddenly understand that the majority of parents are just trying to make it through the day, hanging on by the skin of their teeth. They consider it a success when they make it to nightfall with all their children’s limbs intact.”
The groundbreaking research also showed that the vast majority of careful plans and strategies people have for raising their future children are immediately thrown out the window as soon as they actually have children.
Go here to read the rest. After my bride and I brought our twins home from the hospital, I recall wondering what next? The next few decades answered that question. When we were blessed with children I was 34 and she was 33. Between us we had five college degrees from top universities. I had an established legal practice. We were fairly financially secure with our own home and the classic two cars. My bride had made an intensive study of rearing children. If anyone had asked me I would have replied that we were well prepared for raising children. Ha! Parenthood was the wildest ride of our lives, our great adventure. It was joyful, exasperating, sad, exciting, terrible, wonderful, maddening, grand, often in the same day. It was completely unforgettable. Anything else we do in our lives will, for us, pale in insignificance to our role as parents. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
I agree with that. Raising kids is never really ever over. One always feels the responsibility for all you did and and didn’t do. They are present in your mind till the day you die. Praying for the wayward ones is a daily occupation and a weighty concern.
laughs
We had a very stubborn young lady with lovely, long hair.
Just before the Grandparents showed up, I had to comb it. She objected to it “pulling.” Then got in trouble for something else. So ended up hiding in the bathroom…
Parents, yes, exactly what you’re thinking happened: she “took care” of the need for combing that lovely, long hair. -.-
Several weeks later, one of the grandma-age ladies quietly asks me what happened to her hair, and all I had to say was “she found the scissors.” (And pulled out pictures on my phone, because wow was it a bad job.)
Ended up being complemented for how well we’d done on recovering from that, ah, excitement!
One of the saddest days was when I realized that there would be no Kennedy (Mark V) addition to our family.
I miss the kids greeting me when i got home for just for being Dad.